IOPS is a common performance measurement used to benchmark computer storage devices like hard disk drives, solid state drives, and storage area networks. As with any benchmark, IOPS numbers published by storage device manufacturers do not guarantee real-world application performance.
IOPS can be measured with applications, such as Iometer, as well as IOzone and FIO and is primarily used with servers to find the best storage configuration.
The specific number of IOPS possible in any system configuration will vary greatly, depending upon the variables the tester enters into the program, including the balance of read and write operations, the mix of sequential and random access patterns, the number of worker threads and queue depth, as well as the data block sizes. There are other factors which can also affect the IOPS results including the system setup, storage drivers, OS background operations, etc. Also, when testing SSDs in particular, there are preconditioning considerations that must be taken into account.